The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that TODAY is the last day to register to vote in the 6 March primary.

DBC reminds you that, even if you intend to skip the primary and instead participate in a Green or Libertarian precinct convention on the evening of 13 March, you need to be registered to vote. Also, please bring your cotton-pickin' registration card to the convention.

Here's the blog post and news round-up from last week...

The Houston Chronicle reports that 175,000 voters in Harris County have been marked "in suspense," many due to having their homes destroyed by Harvey. The good news? They can still vote. From Democratic activist Jerry Wald, via Facebook:

To clear up misinformation regarding Harris County residents displaced by Hurricane Harvey being taken off the voter rolls:

Voters on the Harris County Voter Registrar's "Suspense List" are ELIGIBLE TO VOTE. If your voting status is in suspense, you will need to update your address information by filling out a "Statement of Residence" form at the polling location when you go to vote.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris-Bennett wants every eligible voter in Harris County to be able to exercise their right to vote. She is here to help take the suspense and myths out of the voter registration process. She's proud to say that Voter Registrar Division have registered more voters, and trained more volunteer deputy voter registrars than any other in the history of this office.

Please help get this message out to others by sharing this email with your family, friends, and neighbors. Contact the tax office at voters@hctx.net or 713-274-8387 so they can help!

John Coby at Bay Area Houston re-enters the fray with a handful of snarky campaign financereport postings. They follow the same tired cliché that the establishment believes is canon: whoever raises the most money wins, or should win, or should at least be considered the front-runner (irrespective of their political stances on any issue), and the ones who raise the least money should drop out. This is no way to run a democracy, but far too many Democrats just don't get it.

In a stunningly appropriate metaphor, Congressional Republicans traveling to a weekend retreat to discuss the impact Trump will have on their 2018 prospects were on a train that hit a garbage truck, killing the poorest (the sanitation workers) but leaving the politicians only a little shaken. (Passenger rail enthusiast DBC adds: Condolences to those killed and injured in the collision Sunday morning between the Amtrak Silver Star and a freight train in South Carolina.)The Dallas Observer has news of the grand opening of the first cannabis oil dispensary in the state.

The AP, via the Beaumont Enterprise, is following the case of four Texas youth prison guards who were arrested after they choked a 19-year-old unconscious and badly beat another. In the past year, at least nine officers of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department have been arrested on abuse or misconduct charges, and another was convicted of having sex with a youth in custody. The still-unfolding crisis has so far prompted Governor Greg Abbott to replace the agency's top officials and launch yet another investigation.

The Texas Standard wants to know how gerrymandering might be solved, and has news on a group of mathematicians who gathered in Austin over the weekend to work on the problem.